Speaker: Esra A. Aysun
The art managers will undoubtedly be the professionals who will have a
big impact on the well-being and sustainability of the privately
supported art institutions and initiatives which have initially
evolved Istanbul based yet have recently been spreading to many other
cities as well. Did you actually know that the majority of these arts
managers are actually women? In this module, Aysun will focus on the
discussions and sometimes the conflicts of Art Management which evolve
with the global shifts of the cultural policies through women's
rights and gender equality activism.
ESRA A. AYSUN
Esra A. Aysun, is an arts administrator, working as a consultant,
lecturer and writer in the creative sector in Istanbul,. She has been
acting as Head of Arts at the British Council in Turkey to date since
2014 and is a board member of Arter since 2019. Aysun completed her BA
at the Sociology Department of Boğaziçi University (Istanbul) and MA
at the New York University, Administration of Performing Arts (New
York). Since 2003, she has led a career of management and consultancy
at various institutions of culture and arts in Istanbul like
Gallerist, Dot and Museum of Innocence; as well as lecturing on Arts
Management at universities of Yıldız Teknik, Yeditepe, İTÜ MİAM and
Mimar Sinan from 2005 to 2013.
Aysun has been an advisory board member of the IETM Informal Network
for Contemporary Performing Arts (Brussels), Balkan Express (Slovenia)
and a board member of the Cimetta Fund (Paris) and AICA (Istanbul)
(2008-2013). Aysun also served as a member of the Advisory Committee
of the Pavilion of Turkey in the 55th Venice Biennale (2013).
Aysun undertook the editorship of the Current Issues booklet of the
arts magazine Sanat Dünyamız in 2014-15 and is the editor of the book
Sanat Yönetimi Üzerine Konuşmalar (Talks on Arts Management) published
by Yapi Kredi Publications in 2014. As the curator of WOW- Women of
the World Festival Istanbul, which will be organized in Istanbul by
the British Council in 2021, Aysun curated and hosted Festival Alanı,
a radio show on gender equality at Açık Radyo on air from May to
October 2020. Aysun is the Curator of the WOW - Women of the World
Festival Istanbul 2021.